The Velvet Dragon (re-write from Queen Valka)
by Zanteth
Summary: Hiccup finds a strange dragon egg on the other side of Berk and it hatches for him the next night. I don't own HTTYD/The Inheritance Cycle. All OC from I.C. books are 10yrs older. There will also be some new characters in the I.C. All the HTTYD characters are 4 years older than 1st movie. Caution: there will be some blood/violence in story. Prob not recommended for 12 and under.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Hiccup and Toothless were on their sunset flight, though it was getting dark, they didn't care. Toothless was a _Night Fury_ and Hiccup had a lot of energy left, so he didn't mind staying up late. Especially when it came to flying with his best friend. The pair would fly for hours on end, but eventually they needed to rest. Hiccup pointed out a small clearing where the two of them could sleep for the night, and since they were on the other side of Berk, they could rest easily without strangers bothering the two of them.

"I'll get some firewood. We can stay here tonight, and fly back in the morning. Sound good bud?" Hiccup said. When he looked at Toothless, Toothless was already fast asleep hanging upside down on a tree branch. Hiccup grinned and rolled his eyes.

Hiccup wandered around a little and found a huge pile of wet leaves that were freshly fallen. He would have to dig through them to get to the dry wood. So, he pulled out his slightly rusty dagger, sat on his knees, and started digging. He dug the leaves for a few minutes, and it felt like it was an endless pile of leaves. "Come on..." he groaned, already tired from the work. "Maybe I'll just dry off the leaves and use them for fire... wait, how would I dry th-ow!" His dagger slipped out of his left hand and the blade made a cut across his palm. He looked at the palm of his hand, and it started to bleed pretty badly. He would have to deal with it later, as his first aid equipment was in the satchel hanging on Toothless. His eyes got slightly watery from the stinging of the pain, when he saw a strange rock hidden within the pile of leaves. With his uninjured hand, he dug it out. Turned out, the rock was red, smooth and shimmery. Kind of like polished marble.

He carried the rock back over to Toothless, who was still hanging on the branch asleep, and sat the rock near him. He then grabbed his first aid equipment from the satchel. He cleaned the wound on his left hand as best he could and wrapped it in gauze. After he put away the first aid equipment, he took another look at the smooth red rock he found. He didn't notice before, but he now realizes that this rock was, in fact, a dragon egg. He found the scratch he had accidentally made with his knife, and he felt bad about leaving it there. He looked around and didn't see any dragon nests nearby, and there were no dragon footprints, so the mother couldn't have made a nest on the ground. He didn't know what to do. If he was right, and the mother wasn't there, the baby would die when it hatched. If he was wrong, and the mother found out he took her baby... After careful consideration, he had decided that the mother was either dead, or had abandoned the egg. He would keep it, and find the baby a home on Berk.

Hiccup woke up Toothless, and the dragon growled at him for disturbing his sleep. "Hey bud, look what I found." Toothless slid off the tree branch and sniffed the egg. "There were no signs of a nest when I found it." Toothless knew what that meant and whined sadly. "We should take it home." He said. Toothless had wanted some more sleep, but knew Hiccup wouldn't be able to sleep in the woods without a good fire going. So, they flew home.

"I wonder what kind of dragon egg it is." Hiccup asked quietly as they slipped into their room. Toothless only shrugged. "Fishlegs will probably know." Hiccup hid the egg under his bed, and crawled into bed, too exhausted.

"Come on, get up!" Hiccup sat up tiredly and looked out his window with sleepy eyes and could see the sunlight pouring into his room. _It was morning already?_ He thought tiredly. He felt like he hadn't slept at all. Stoick came into the room saying "Come on son, you have a race today." Hiccup moaned and collapsed into his pillow.

"Nope, not getting up today. I'm just going to sleep." he mumbled. Stoick pushed his son out of bed.

"You had hours of sleep, you're fine." Stoick said as Hiccup stood up rubbing his head

His dad was always way too excited for the Dragon Races. "Come on, we can sleep all day tomorrow bud." Toothless groaned and rolled over. There was no way he was ever getting up today.

* * *

Hiccup and Toothless, though both tired, had to race. The both of them though were barely awake at all. It took a miracle just to get Toothless out of the house. "Come on bud, wake up." yawned Hiccup. He yawned once more and lied down on Toothless's head. He had fallen asleep for a few seconds before Astrid came and woke him up.

"Hey, are you okay? You don't look so good." She asked, concern in her voice.

Hiccup yawned again and looked up at her with his droopy eyes. Toothless collapsed on the ground, and immediately started snoring. "What?" he yawned the word "No, no, I-I'm fine. Wake up bud." Hiccup clapped his hands to get his Night Fury awake. Toothless slowly popped up and looked around when Hiccup patted his neck.

"Did you two even sleep at all last night?" She asked, seeing how tired the boy and his dragon were.

Hiccup tiredly shook his head no and once again laid back down on top of Toothless. He fell asleep quickly again and was quietly snoring. He even started to drool on top of Toothless. Toothless whacked him with his ear.

"Huh? Oh, sorry bud." He wiped the drool off of Toothless. Astrid didn't like the idea of them flying so sleepy like this.

"I don't think you should race today." She said, concern evident in her voice "I mean, if you fall asleep flying, you could crash." Hiccup was barely listening, and his eyes were shut as he was leaning on his hand. She slapped him in the face to get his attention.

"Ow! Okay, okay, I'm awake now. Happy?" Astrid smirked and went back to Stormfly.

The announcer blew the horn for the race to start. Everyone but Hiccup and Toothless sped off at great speed. Toothless flew off the stand, but just glided towards the ground, too tired to fly. He flapped his wings once, but not hard enough to get aloft. Toothless just softly landed on the ground and rolled over on Hiccup, who was, yet again, fast asleep.

"Uh, would someone go wake those two up please?" yelled the announcer

Gobber limped down with a bucket of water, and hobbled over to Hiccup and Toothless. He tossed the freezing cold water on the both of them, but that didn't work. They were just too tired to wake up. Gobber unlatched Hiccup's metal leg and dragged him out from under Toothless. Hiccup moaned as he pulled Toothless's wing over like a blanket.

"Come on, get up!" Gobber complained

"Toothless and I were flying all night," moaned Hiccup "By the time we got home, it was morning, and dad thought that we just came home last night. Can we just sleep here?" he continued to moan. He looked as though he were talking in his sleep. Gobber looked up at Stoick and gestured to them.

"I'll deal with them later." Stoick said, a hint of anger in his voice.

Toothless held Hiccup like a person would hold a teddy bear. They were fast asleep in the middle of the grass, completely unaware of what was going on, and frankly, they didn't care. Astrid had won the race and landed right next to them. She kicked Toothless who woke up and rolled over. Hiccup woke up instantly just as Toothless nearly crushed him.

"C'mon," she said as she picked up Hiccup from the ground and threw him over her shoulder.

"No, no! Put me down! I'm awake now!" Hiccup said as he squirmed loose from Astrid and brushed himself off.

"Your dad looks really angry." She said "That might have been the most embarrassing thing ever happened to you. You took all the attention away from me winning the race. Why would you fly all night anyways?"

Hiccup shook his head. He knew not only he had embarrassed himself, but Astrid and his father as well. However, he was awake now, although he wished he wasn't.

"I was going to camp and fly back in the morning so I could get _some_ sleep," he explained "but I found something. Just come on."

He grabbed Astrid with his injured left hand and pulled her along, taking her to his house. She wanted to ask him about his hand, but he was already embarrassed enough. When they arrived at the house, Stoick was sitting on the porch. His face was redder than a tomato. "HIC-CUP!" he yelled at his son.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Stoick had a fit. He was walking back and forth in the house yelling at his son. "You just decided to take a nap in the middle of the track. What is wrong with you? You know how embarrassing that was? Especially when Spitelout was laughing at us! Gobber couldn't get you or Toothless to wake up. Did you just decide not to sleep or something?" Stoick went on for a while longer and Astrid finally interrupted. She wouldn't just stand there and let Stoick go on and on like a lunatic.

"Well, he told me that he stayed up all night flying and lost track of time. He's an adult now, so he isn't as hyperactive like he used to be. I know if I stayed up all night, I would pass out from lack of sleep. You were the one who wasn't listening to him like usual, so be glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been. So if you would just SHUT YOUR _PIEHOLE_! It would be much appreciated." She lectured. Her voice was rising at the end of her little speech.

Both of the Haddocks were silent. Hiccup liked having a friend who would stood up for him, but she never let him fight his own battles. He loved her for it either way.

"Uh... what she said." Hiccup stumbled saying, Stoick was still silent. He didn't really want to fight with Astrid, _and_ embarrass himself further.

"Al-alright..." Stoick sighed and stepped aside.

Astrid held her head up triumphantly with a smug smile, and walked upstairs with Hiccup following behind closely.

"Impressive as usual." he whispered to her. She grinned even more at the compliment.

When they entered Hiccups room, she sat on his bed and stretched out. She had no personal boundaries. Toothless jumped on the bed too, and tried to push her off. He was very protective of his territory. Hiccup chuckled and patted Toothless's head, telling him that it was fine. Hiccup checked on the egg, and thankfully it hadn't hatched yet. He rolled it out and placed the smooth red egg next to Astrid. She cocked her head as she picked it up and looked at it, seeing the scratch mark that Hiccup left on it's shell.

"I found it last night," Hiccup started to explain "It was buried in the dirt under a pile of leaves. There were no signs of a nest though, and the egg is too big for the mother to be a tree dwelling. Don't worry, I still checked. I was going to show it to Fishlegs, but I thought it was like midnight when I got back. So, I went to bed. However, apparently I had about five minutes of sleep. I guess I have no concept of time whatsoever." Hiccup yawned once more at the end of his explanation of the dragon egg and sat down next to Astrid. Astrid gave the egg back to Hiccup.

"You might want to show it to Fishlegs now, it could be a new species." she said. They both knew that Fishlegs loves getting details on new species of dragons. So they set out to find him.

* * *

They found Fishlegs drawing a sleeping Meatlug in the Academy. After Hiccup and Astrid jumped off Toothless, Toothless went over to Meatlug and started playing with her.

"Toothless!" Fishlegs yelled. Hiccuped patted on Fishleg's shoulder.

"Sorry about that Fishlegs." he said then showed him the dragon egg "But, look at this, I found a dragon egg last night. There was no nest nearby, so the mother had probably..." He couldn't finish the sentence. Fishlegs snatched the egg from Hiccup's hands and studied it as Hiccup narrowed his eyes and growled quietly.

"It isn't any egg I've ever seen before," Fishlegs started to explain "We can check it out when it hatches and see what it is then. It could be just a Typhoomerang. We've never seen one of their eggs before."

Hiccup didn't like the idea of them poking and prodding at an innocent baby dragon. He took the egg back and agreed. Astrid added "You know, he's probably right. Just keep it safe until it hatches and we can study it then." Now Hiccup was worried.

Both he and Astrid went to their own homes. When Hiccup got home, he made a false nest out of a pillow, wrapped some blankets at the base of the egg, and added some warm rocks that Toothless had superheated with small jet streams of plasma blasts. He didn't want to leave it alone in case his dad found it. So, he stayed in his room and kept an eye on it as the day trudged by. It had probably been the longest day of his life as he watched an egg that probably won't even hatch, due to his stupidity of scratching it.

When the night finally came, the makeshift nest was set at the end of Hiccup's bed so that he could hide it under his blankets when he fell asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Hiccup woke up to a small screeching sound. "Hey bud, wake up!" he whispered to Toothless.

The dragon slept on, so he threw a small piece of scrap metal he had on his nightstand at the sleeping black lizard. Toothless woke up, and snorted, slightly pissed at Hiccup. Then he cringed when he heard the loud screeching noise as well. Hiccup hopped out of bed and removed the blankets from the top of the egg. Toothless walked over and cocked his head wondering what's happening. The boy and his dragon both watched the egg roll out of the makeshift nest Hiccup had built, and then the egg shell exploded, scattering pieces everywhere, and a small baby red dragon emerged from the broken egg.

The dragon had a longish neck, with a round head. It had tiny horns, and bits of feathery fur on its wings and head. Its eyes were a dark emerald green and it had four weak, but surely would be strong legs. It had shiny red scales that shimmered brilliantly in the moonlight. Hiccup was stunned at the sight. _Definitely not a Typhoomerang._ Thought Hiccup. Naturally, Hiccup reached out with his bandaged left hand which the baby dragon gently brushed with its snout before becoming distracted. Hiccup pulled his hand away as is burned and prickled. He took off the gauze and saw that his cut was gone. However, where it had burned and prickled, there was left a silver mark on his palm. He shook his hand, wondering if it was only the trick of the light, but apparently it wasn't. The mark was still there.

"What the?..." He was interrupted by Toothless's humming. The two dragons touched each others snouts. Hiccup thought it was kinda cute, until Toothless backed off and shook his head. He pawed at his now silvery nose. Hiccup looked back at the baby who had curled up on his bed and was fast asleep. "Wow!" Hiccup said.

Toothless then followed the baby dragon's idea and curled up around the newborn dragon on top of Hiccup's bed. Hiccup sighed and shook his head. He cleared the makeshift nest and broken shells off of his bed and tried to squeeze in with the two sleeping dragons. _We'll sort this out tomorrow..._ Hiccup thought just as he yawned and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Hiccup rolled out of the bed and stretched. He glanced at the two sleeping dragons and smirked to himself. "C'mon bud," he said as he pushed Toothless awake "We gotta go see Fishlegs." He noticed the silver mark left on Toothless's nose, and then he checked his left hand. "So, it wasn't a dream... weird..." Toothless crawled out of the blanket, waking the baby red dragon. The hatchling began crying. Toothless and Hiccup stared at each other, confused. Hiccup looked back and forth between the hatchling and Toothless, and pointed at the red dragon, not sure of what to do. Toothless shook his head and pushed Hiccup towards the baby.

Hiccup slowly extended his hand, and the hatchling crawled up his arm and rested on his shoulder, sitting on it like a proud bird. Then it started barking happily. "You are one strange dragon." He said as he saddled up on Toothless and flew straight to the academy where they saw Fishlegs tutoring the others about the Scauldron.

When he had landed, everyone started at the small red dragon sitting on Hiccup's shoulder. Only Tuffnut had noticed the silver spot on Toothless's nose.

"Is that the dragon from the egg you showed me yesterday?" Asked Fishlegs, excitement clearly evident in his voice.

Hiccup nodded and the dragon rubbed against his cheek. "Cool right?" Hiccup answered.

He took the dragon off his shoulder and held it like a cat, hugging the hatchling while it looked around at the strange new surroundings.

"I want to see her for a second." Fishlegs said as he stole the baby from Hiccup's arms. Toothless growled when the baby cried, and Fishlegs put it on a table and started poking around and pulling its tail and wings, stretching them out. "She's beautiful for sure," said Fishlegs examining the baby red dragon.

Hiccup snatched the baby and held it protectively in his arms as Toothless swung his tail around in front of Hiccup, back arched in a protective manner. "She?" Hiccup asked. Fishlegs nodded, obviously a little frightened at the sight of Toothless protecting Hiccup and the baby red dragon. "Well, I guess it'll be easier to name then." Toothless relaxed next to Hiccup and gave a warning growl at Fishlegs.

"Names?" Fishlegs asked "You can't keep her. She could get huge. We need to study and release her. Berk can't handle another Torch." Hiccup's eyes widened as he saw everyone else nodding their heads. Astrid had a sad look on her face.

"She's only a baby," Hiccup explained "I brought her back to Berk so she would be able to survive. She needs a mother, but she doesn't have one. If we let her go now, she might die. I'll keep her until she is old enough to take care of herself. If she doesn't get giant, she can stay on Berk. And as for the studying," he directed this part at Fishlegs "That's an awful plan. She'll go insane without being near Toothless and I." Fishlegs saw how attached Hiccup had become, and he also knew that once Hiccup had made up his mind about something, there is no way of changing it. Not even Astrid could change his mind.

"Look Hiccup," Fishlegs began earnestly, "You already have Toothless, and he's a Night Fury. You don't want to make him jealous." Hiccup sat the baby dragon on Toothless's nose. She played around with Toothless, and playfully bit his nose. Toothless pretended to be hurt, and rolled over play wrestling with the baby dragon.

"Really?" Said Hiccup, making a point. Fishlegs ran out of arguments.

"Fine," he said, exasperated "But, if she gets too big for the village, she has to leave. Also, if it turns out her mother is alive, you'll have to give her back. And you know this." Even though Hiccup was sad at the thought of losing her so soon, he did agree.

"Alright, that's all fine and dandy, but why is Toothless's nose silver?" blurted out Tuffnut. All of them, except for Hiccup, stared at Toothless.

Astrid joined in on the conversation "How'd we miss that?"

"Oh... um..." Hiccup started "Last night when she hatched, she touched Toothless's nose and left that mark. She left one on my hand too." He held out his left hand, and showed the strange silver mark on it. Astrid noticed that it was healed completely, and thought it weird. _No one heals that fast_. Astrid thought.

"She did the same to me when I touched her, and this mark healed that cut I accidentally put on my hand. Pretty cool huh? And you wanted to get rid of her." Hiccup again directed to Fishlegs, he cringed his face, hurt. "I think she's awesome. Isn't that right Ruby?" Hiccup rubbed her head and the dragon crawled up his arm, perching on his shoulders, pleased by her new name.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

**Okay, I know that in the book Eragon, when he touched Saphira, he fell back and cursed as the pain was so intense. Here, the pain was split between Hiccup and Toothless, hence the tingly sensation he felt and Toothless felt a little bit more of the pain after he touched the Ruby. Just to clear up any questions any of you readers might have in the near future.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It's been about two months since Ruby had hatched, and Hiccup was the only human wasn't scared of her. In those two months, she had grown to about the size of a medium dog, and she now had grown razor sharp teeth that could even tear through metal. Her long, hooked claws were also quite alarming. She couldn't fly on her own yet, so she always rode along with Toothless whenever the two pair flew. She never kept to herself, like, ever. She gets extremely jealous especially when Hiccup is alone with Astrid, talking. Like they are now.

Hiccup and Astrid were out on a date, and this was their fourth anniversary of getting together. So it was really important to the two of them. Hiccup tried leaving Ruby at home for the day, but he couldn't resist her big puppy-like dragon eyes. Hiccup had sighed and told her where he was going that she could meet him there. Hiccup didn't know if she understood at all, so he headed off to the beach where Astrid was waiting for him.

"Hello milady," Hiccup greeted as he jumped off Toothless. Astrid was in a one-piece bathing suit, and had a towel wrapped around her waist and a silky jacket on her torso. She trusted Hiccup, but she wouldn't let him so much see her with her hair down until they were married. She was somewhat traditional, but Hiccup didn't care. He also wore a bathing suit. He kept his short sleeve shirt on so he wouldn't burn in the hot summer sun.

"Finally! You're late you know." Said Astrid waving her arms in the air "Well don't just stand there staring, come over here already." Hiccup snapped out of his trance at seeing Astrid, and apologized to her. He hoped that she couldn't see through him today like usual, as this was the day he was going to propose to her.

"So, how have you been?" Asked Astrid as she kissed him on the cheek. "I haven't seen you for a while. You're always in Gobber's shop. What have you been working on anyway?" She asked. Hiccup was slightly worried that she already found out about his proposal to her.

"Oh, it's nothing really. I was just helping Gobber with some chores is all." She nodded at Hiccup's lame excuse "You didn't bring Ruby did you? I know you're attached to her and all, but sometimes you it feels like you spend more time with her than me. Sorry, I'm just a little jealous."

Hiccup's eyes widened and searched the area really fast. He spotted Ruby hidden in a bush a hundred yards away. He looked back at Astrid as if he didn't see Ruby. "N-no, I didn't bring her." he stumbled poorly. Astrid cocked her head at him and raised an eyebrow. "Really, I didn't. And as for ignoring you lately, I'm sorry about that. But, I hope to be spending a lot more time with you." He reached for the ring in the satchel he had been working on at Gobbers shop. Astrid still had no idea, but she was smiling. She leaned in and kissed his now.

Ruby saw him reach for the ring in his satchel. Ruby started to worry, she couldn't lose him, she had only just met Hiccup. If he got married, he would have a family and forget about her and Toothless. No, she wouldn't let that happen. She roared as loud as she could, which, wasn't really that loud, though the couple still noticed.

Hiccup glared at the bush and pulled out the box with the ring in it. He held it out in his hands as Astrid asked "What was that?" He realized that she was looking around and didn't even notice the box in his hands.

"I don't know." Hiccup said as he looked away from the bush. Hiccup coughed clearing his throat and trying to get her attention, and then said "Astrid, would you d-" he was cut off mid sentence as Ruby flew out of the bushes and tackled Astrid. That was the first time she ever flew, and Hiccup would be proud if he wasn't trying to pry her off his girlfriend.

After some struggling, he finally pulled Ruby off of Astrid, and Ruby accidentally scratched Astrid on the right side of her face, leaving two claw marks, making it bleed. She even had scratches up her arms.

"OW!" She yelled "I thought you said that you didn't bring her! You lied! For the love of Thor Hiccup, you love that stupid freakin lizard more than me don't you? If you love that stinking reptile _so_ much, why don't you just marry it!" She was really mad at Hiccup for lying to her, and she punched him smack in the nose. He heard a cracking noise as her fist made contact, and he felt a stream of blood ooze down his face. She stormed off, hopped on Stormfly who was quietly lying in wait, crying.

Hiccup released Ruby and picked up the ring box. He opened it, and observed the silver ring that he had made for her in the shop. The ring was made to look like a small dragon, curled up in a ball with a heart-shaped sapphire stone embedded in it's open mouth. He worked so hard on it as well. He closed the box and stood up. It was only twelve minutes ago that he had sat down, so happy, and ready to propose to Astrid. And now she hated him. He climbed onto Toothless who was still growling at Ruby.

"It's okay bud." Said Hiccup. Toothless swiveled his head around to look at his partner "She is still just a baby. She didn't know what was happening. Either way, she can't bite people. She'll get killed." Hiccup looked at Ruby. Ruby cringed, obviously feeling guilty about her recent actions. "Apparently she can fly now, so she can get home on her own." The last bit he directed at Ruby.

Ruby tucked her tail between her legs and cowered. She had caused him pain. She accidentally bit his ear too hard, but she felt even more awful. She ruined his life in only ten minutes. A single tear dropped from on of her bright green eyes as she saw Hiccup and Toothless fly away, back to the house. She tried spreading her wings to fly, but she couldn't. In fact, she didn't even know how she had flown before. So she slowly walked home, hoping to arrive once they were all asleep.

* * *

Hiccup stumbled into the house, tears pouring down his face. His nose was still bleeding profusely, and it still hurt like heck, but he acted like that he couldn't feel it. Stoick gasped at the sight of his son. He knew that Hiccup was going to ask for Astrid's hand in marriage today, but apparently, all he got was a fist to the face instead.

"Sit down son," Stoick said once he regained composure "Your nose is bleeding. I guess it didn't go too well?" Hiccup just broke down into even more sobs. Stoick hadn't seen his son cry for years. He was a pretty sturdy emotionally. Stoick handed Hiccup a towel that he used to stop the nosebleed. Hiccup explained in heartbreaking detail of the events of his failed proposal attempt. He continued to cry into his dad's shoulder for almost half an hour. Stoick carried his son up the stairs to his room, and helped him into bed.

"You going to be alright?" Stoick asked "Normally you're pretty good at controlling yourself. You know that she didn't really leave you." Stoick said calmly. Hiccup nodded as he just stared at the opposite side of his room. Not wanting to look at anything. "Well, call me if you need anything. I'll be downstairs as usual." Stoick said and left Hiccup to his thoughts.

Toothless crawled into the room from the open skylight, and tried cheering up Hiccup with a few licks to the face. When Toothless saw that Hiccup wasn't even reacting, he jumped onto the bed and laid next to him, covering a wing over his body protectively. Sometime later, Ruby arrived and saw that Hiccup was still silently crying, and Toothless was protecting him. Ruby held her head up to Hiccup trying to say sorry, but Toothless growled at the red dragon.

"_-ry. I'm so sorry. I don't deserved to be called a dragon."_ Hiccup's head snapped up at the sudden female voice in his head. Toothless also. Ruby stepped back, surprised and tried thinking to them again. Hiccup stopped crying, his jaw dropped, and he shook his head, thinking he was hearing things.

"You can talk?" he whispered sharply "Since when?"

He looked at Toothless, wondering if he could talk to.

"How 'bout you?" he asked him

_"__-on't know, ca__n you hear me now?" _He heard a young male voice in his head. Hiccup slowly nodded.

All three soon forgot about their sorrow and continued to speak with each other. Hiccup tried speaking with his mind too. It worked! They all talked until it was nighttime about how this was even possible. None knew why, but they were all grateful that they could all understand each other, even if they had no clue how this was even possible.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It's been two weeks since Ruby had accidentally harmed Astrid, and ruined her and Hiccup's relationship. Every time Hiccup saw Astrid, she would hide away, and Snotlout would appear practically out of nowhere with Hookfang at his side. The ever watching hawks over Astrid.

Hiccup decided to just go to the workshop and help Gobber out wherever he can, making saddles and such for the other vikings with their own dragons. Toothless and Ruby would be outback playing with each other during Hiccup's stay at Gobber's workshop. Ruby had grown a little bit, and Hiccup was getting a little worried of how big Ruby would get until she finally stopped growing. She was now about half the size of Hookfang, so it was getting hard for her to stay in his room all the time.

Hiccup had told Gobber of the incident of his attempted failed proposal, since he also knew about it. Afterward, Hiccup worked quietly in his part of the shop. Molten steel, sharpening blades on the grinder, making saddles. Basically what he usually did while in the workshop.

"_Hiccup, come here!"_ He heard Toothless call in his mind

Hiccup went out from his private workshop and walked out back towards Toothless and Ruby. Toothless was sitting and when he saw Hiccup come out the back door, he pointed with his nose to Ruby, who was trying to learn how to fly. She tried flapping her wings to get aloft, and for a second, she was airborne, but she landed heavily on the ground.

"I thought you could already fly?" Hiccup asked the red dragon.

"_I didn't even know how I did it the first time." _She complained "_I guess that was instinct."_

_Definitely instinct..._ Hiccup thought to himself as he remembered how she flew.

"Hey bud, I actually want to talk to you about something." Hiccup said to Toothless.

"_What is it? You can tell me anything."_ Toothless said.

"Not in front of her." Hiccup whispered in Toothless's ear. "Follow me."

Hiccup looked back at Ruby and smiled at her as she was practicing trying to lift off the ground. The two friends went in the workshop and entered Hiccup's section. Toothless poked his head through the door as he watched Hiccup rummaging through some papers.

"Ah, here it is." he mumbled to himself. Hiccup grabbed a satchel and put the note he had written up the night before in it. He snaked the satchel's strap around Toothless's head so it would hang as it was being delivered.

"I want you to take that note to Astrid if you can bud," Hiccup stated "It's an apology letter. I've been working on it for a while, and I think this one would work the best."

Toothless looked on the floor and noticed a small pile of crumpled papers stashed together. Some of them in the trash bin that was next to his desk.

"_I'll see what I can do."_ Toothless said as he licked his best friend's face.

"Blech!" Hiccup said, slightly feeling uncomfortable. "I-I'll meet you at the Cove, Toothless."

* * *

Toothless left the workshop with the satchel around his neck and set out to find Astrid. He checked everywhere in the main square of the village, jumping on top of rooftops, looking over trying to find her. He spotted the twins, walking around with their hammers resting on their shoulders, playing some sort of weird game. _If the twins are here, she's gotta be nearby._ Toothless thought. The twins spotted a wandering Toothless, and stopped him in his tracks.

"And where do you think you're going my good sir?" Tuffnut asked the dragon

"I bet he's going to see her," said Ruffnut.

"What makes you think that Sis?" Tuffnut asked her

"Oh, because of this!" She snatched up the satchel from around Toothless's neck and Toothless jumped high and back, grabbing the strap with his mouth as he retracted his teeth, not wanting to accidentally bite Tuffs hand off.

"Whoa, must be important." Said Tuffnut, now curious as to what's in the satchel.

The twins creepily walked up towards Toothless with their hands up in a 'Getting-ready-to-grab' motion. Toothless jumped high over the twins as they both dove for the satchel the dragon was carrying, and he charged away from the twins as they tried to catch up to him.

"Barf! Belch!" The twins called for their Hideous Zippleback, and in less than a minute later, their dragon came and the twins jumped onto their saddles and chased after Toothless all around the village. Toothless was desperately not trying to hurt anyone as he was running away from the twins, and at the same time he was still looking for Astrid. He needed to get this satchel to her, so that she could read how sorry Hiccup was. Toothless just hated seeing Hiccup upset. He wanted him to be happy.

"Toothless?" Came a familiar female voice. "What are you doing running around like that?" It was Astrid. Toothless stopped for just an instant and dropped the satchel he was carrying in his mouth, and went off.

Astrid was slightly confused for a minute, but then she saw the twins chase after the flightless Toothless. She groaned and rolled her eyes. Just as she turned around, she felt her foot hit something on the ground. She looked down and saw a satchel. It was a little bit moist with Toothless's saliva on it, so she carefully picked it up. She looked to where Toothless was running off to, and she noticed that it was in the direction where she had first met Toothless. The cove. If Toothless was heading there...

Astrid reached in the satchel and found a dry piece of paper inside it. On the paper was a small note that had Hiccup's cursive handwriting on it:

_I'm sorry for lying to you. I know that relationships are built on trust, and I promise I'll do better. I love you, and I don't think we should throw away four years of memories and happiness for this. Please, can we try to work this out? If you're willing, try to meet me at the Cove._

_~Love Hiccup_

"Well. This is new." She said to no one in particular after reading the note.

"You alright Astrid?" Snotlout surprised her by saying. She hid the note in a pocket and ditched the satchel and acted like nothing happened.

"Y-yeah." Astrid stuttered as she turned to face him "I'm fine. What do you need Snotlout? A knuckle sandwich or something?" She made a fist and threatened him with it. Snotlout was wise enough to back off and walk away.

"Stormfly!" She called for her Nadder.

A sparkling blue Deadly Nadder came flying down near her position. Astrid saddled up on Stormfly and took off into the skies and flew in the direction of the cove.

* * *

When Astrid arrived at the Cove alone, she saw Toothless running around the pond, sticking his head in the water trying to grab some fish. Apparently he had lost the twins somehow. Astrid circled the Cove a couple of times, because she saw Ruby standing near Hiccup. Hiccup was sitting on a rock, drawing on the ground with a stick. Astrid sighed as she ordered Stormfly to land near Hiccup.

Hiccup looked up as he saw Astrid jump down from Stormfly, and as she turned around, he saw the two claw marks that were left on the right side of her face. Hiccup looked down again, feeling ashamed about that incident, and for not telling her the truth about Ruby that day.

"So, what's this about an apology?" She asked straight up, staying near Stormfly for protection.

Hiccup looked up again and this time he stood up. He slowly walked over to Astrid, but Stormfly whipped her tail around, shooting a few spikes right at Hiccup's feet, preventing his advance towards Astrid.

"That's far enough." Said Astrid, holding out her hand.

"I guess it is." Hiccup said tiredly with a sigh. Hiccup took a deep breath and started his apology that he was trying to work on for the past two weeks. "Look, all I wanted to do was apologize for lying to you. Yes, I knew that Ruby was there at the beach, and no, I didn't know that she was going to attack you. I think she was just afraid of losing me. And also, Ruby says she's also sorry."

"What, you speak dragon now?" Astrid asked

"Not really..." Hiccup said "it's more like we can hear each others thoughts. Same goes for Toothless." He tried to explain. At the mention of his name, Toothless looked up from the water and came over to Hiccup. Toothless playfully pushed his head behind Hiccup's legs and made him sit on the saddle. Astrid chuckled at the sight of the boy and his dragon play wrestling together. Hiccup jumped back down and scratched Toothless where he liked it.

Ruby stayed where she was with her head down, tail between her legs. Feeling left out of playtime. Astrid scratched Stormfly where she liked it, telling her it's okay now. Then she walked over towards the boy and his dragon and grabbed him by the waist, pulling him towards her, kissing him on the lips. Hiccup was surprised by Astrid's sudden action, and Toothless pushed his head between the two of them wanting in on the hugfest.

"So... apology accepted?" Hiccup asked, not sure if the kiss was a good, or a bad thing.

"Yes." Astrid agreed "For now anyways."

"_Hiccup?"_ said Ruby "_Would you mind telling this to her?"_

Hiccup looked at Ruby hand in hand with Astrid, and nodded. Ruby looked at Astrid, and Hiccup relayed her message to her at the exact same time. "_I'm very sorry that I scratched your face. I didn't mean to go that far. I was so afraid of losing Hiccup, that I lost control of my actions. But, if you like, I think I can heal your face if you wouldn't mind."_

"Wait... she was just saying that?" Astrid asked, a little hint of fear in her voice.

"Yes." Hiccup said seriously. "And I have no idea what she means by 'heal your face'."

"Well, your hand healed after you first touched her right?" Astrid asked

"True..." Hiccup sighed

Ruby slowly walked up to Astrid and snaked her head towards her. Ruby rubbed her head against Astrid calmly, and a tear fell from one of her big dark green emerald eyes and fell on Astrids face. The tear went over her scars, and Astrid instantly felt the pain go away. Hiccup's eyes widened as he saw the deep cuts sealing themselves up as they absorbed the liquid. Ruby returned her long neck head back towards her body and gave a small puff of smoke from her nostrils.

"Wow." Was all Hiccup could say. Astrid felt her face, and it felt smooth to the touch. She smiled, really smiled for the first time since their last fight. "Now that's a beautiful face." Hiccup said

"And it wasn't before?" She smirked

"Uh... well..." Hiccup was a loss for words as he scratched the back of his head.

"Come here you." She said as she pulled him towards her again and kissed him on the lips.

"_Toothless, you know where the ring is right?"_ Hiccup asked him through thought.

"_Yeah, want me to fetch it for you?" _Toothless responded with as he perked up his head

Hiccup waved Toothless to go away, but Toothless knew that meant yes. Toothless went to the canyon wall and jumped up and over it to go and get Hiccup the ring that was in another satchel in his room.

"Where did Toothless go?" Astrid asked, seeing the Night Fury jumping over the canyon wall

"Oh... um... actually, I have no idea." Lied Hiccup. They sat together and chatted for a few hours until Toothless returned with a satchel bag around his neck.

"_Your dad put it around me right when I got home. Apparently he already knew what I was looking for."_ Toothless said as Hiccup walked over to his friend. Hiccup patted Toothless's head and smiled at the dragon. He opened the satchel and there was a small piece of paper stuck on the underside of the flap 'Good luck this time son.' it had said. Hiccup smiled even more at his dad's messy handwriting. He looked back at Astrid, and she had a confused look on her face. Hiccup then looked at Ruby, and she nodded, knowing what he was doing now. He trusted Ruby this time to stay where she was as he reached in the satchel for the box that held the ring in it.

When he turned to Astrid, he hid his hands behind his back as he walked up to her. When he knelt down with his right knee on the ground in front of her, he slowly whipped his arms around, and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as he opened the little box that held the dragon ring in it.

"Astrid Hofferson, will you do me the honor of having your hand in marriage?" he asked in a clear voice.

Toothless was jumping around, roaring happily, excited to finally see this happening. Ruby stayed right where she was, and Astrid was still shocked by the design of the ring.

"Hiccup..." she gasped his name "D... did you make this?" she whispered

Hiccup nodded then said "With no help at all."

"I... I don't know what to say..." she stuttered. Too shocked at the beauty of the dragon ring that Hiccup created with his bare hands.

"_Toothless, a little help here bud?" _He asked him

Toothless came behind Astrid and gave her a push towards Hiccup with a happy short roar. Astrid chuckled at the playful Toothless and said "Yes." to Hiccup.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Okay, I'm kind of glad of this chapter. I mean, you guys can totally see The Twins doing that to Toothless right? I c'mon, it was kind of obvious.**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the read, and please ask questions and Review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Hiccup smiled as she said 'yes' to the once-in-a-lifetime question. He stood up and took the dragon ring out of the box and slid it on her right ring-finger and brought her in closer for a kiss. It wasn't a short kiss like all the other kisses they gave each other. No, this kiss was a long one. Though it lasted minutes, it felt like hours to them. Toothless shot a few plasma blasts high in the air in excitement, happy to see the couple now betrothed. Stormfly even joined in on the blasting, mixing her magnesium blasts with Toothless's plasma blasts.

"Alright you two, settle down." Hiccup said

"_I'm only happy for you Hiccup." _said Toothless

"_Why thanks bud." _Hiccup thought back to him

"We should probably go tell everyone." Astrid said with a smile on her face.

Hiccup suddenly felt really tired for some reason. Like the energy he had now just went away unexpectedly. He yawned, and said tiredly "Maybe tomorrow?"

"Why are you so tired all of a sudden?" She asked, hands on her hips. Hiccup shrugged, not really having a clue. Both he and Astrid went over to a makeshift cave that Hiccup and Toothless created together a couple years back. The cave was big enough for Toothless, Stormfly, Hiccup and Astrid to sleep under for the night.

* * *

Later in the night, Astrid woke up to the sound of Hiccup screaming. He was squirming around, flipping back and forth underneath Toothless's wing he was using as a blanket. She grabbed a torch and lit it up and saw that Hiccup was sweating all over. It looked as though he were having a nightmare. Out of all the years she had known him, and had slept over at his house, never once did he had a nightmare. At least, not to her knowledge anyways. She felt his forehead, and it was burning. He had a high fever, and that made Astrid worry a lot. Hiccup rarely gets sick, even when the others get Yak Pox, Hiccup always seems to be able to avoid it somehow.

"Why are you like this?" she whispered to herself, worried about her betrothed.

He was like this for a good while, and Astrid even went towards the pond to wet a towel so she could put it over Hiccup's forehead to cool him down a little. She stayed by his side as she laid a hand gently on his shoulder, letting him know that she was right there with him. A few minutes later, he seemed to have calmed down and his breathing had slowed to an even sleep. A minute or two later, Astrid went back to sleep hoping Hiccup would feel better by morning.

* * *

_It was clear blue skies as the two best friends were enjoying their daily flight away from Berk. Ruby was with them as well, and Hiccup and Toothless were literally flying circles around her. Hiccup locked Toothless's tail in place as he patted the dragons head, and stood up on the saddle, riding him. Ruby went down a hundred feet below and Hiccup jumped off of Toothless and fell straight downwards. Toothless followed him, and spread out his wings and hovered right above Ruby. Hiccup landed almost smoothly on top of Ruby's large body, kind of tripping over some of her spikes that arched along her back._

"_That was close!" Said Hiccup as he was grabbing one of Ruby's large spikes. Hiccup looked up at Toothless, and smiled at him. The Night Fury grinned back a toothless grin, happy just to be with his two best friends in the whole world._

_The bright blue sky slowly but surely turned into a reddish hue as the bright orange sun was setting behind the horizon. The sky suddenly looked like the color of blood, darker than Ruby's bright red scales. Around the three of them, hundreds of huge dragons, much, much larger than Ruby, suddenly filled the skies battling each other. Toothless tried to hover beside Ruby as he couldn't avoid much of the other huge dragons._

_When Hiccup ran towards Toothless, trying to get to his saddle, a large stream of fire was shooting towards Toothless's tail. His makeshift tail had caught fire. Hiccup's eyes widened as he saw his best friend plummet towards the ocean floor. The Night Fury roared frantically as he fell and heard Hiccup screaming his name. Suddenly there was a huge impact against Ruby's right side and that instantly knocked her unconscious. Hiccup slipped off of her and fell into the ocean with a hard impact that instantly knocked him out._

* * *

Hiccup's eyes popped open and he quickly looked around. He sighed with relief to see a sleeping Night Fury next to him. Toothless's eyes soon slowly opened, and he saw that his best friend was still with him as well. Toothless stood up and stretched, then licked Hiccup's body after he had stood up in the cave.

"I'm fine bud." he said cheerfully and scratched the dragon's head.

Hiccup looked around once more and saw that Astrid was still sleeping right next to where he was.

"Some dream huh bud?" Hiccup said to Toothless

"_Yeah..." _Toothless replied with a sigh

"You too?" Hiccup asked, and the Night Fury nodded. Hiccup was surprised that the two of them had the exact same dream.

"_It felt too real."_ Toothless said "_I thought I lost you."_

"Well, I'm right here bud." Hiccup said as he scratched the dragon's head again for reassurance.

Astrid yawned as she woke up. She smiled when she saw Hiccup standing, talking to Toothless.

"Glad to see you're feeling better." She said as she stood up and stretched and then kissed him on the lips. She whipped off her mouth, slightly disgusted as she felt Toothless's saliva on Hiccup's face.

"Yeah..." Hiccup said "Both Toothless and I had the strangest dream."

"Strangest dream?" Astrid asked "Looked like you were having a nightmare instead. And did you say the both of you had the same dream?"

Hiccup only nodded, still a little shaken from the nightmare.

"I'll talk about it later," he said, trying to avoid the subject "C'mon, we should probably head back to the village. The others are probably worried about us."

Both of the riders mounted their dragons and flew out of the Cove, with Ruby on their tails. A couple hours later, they returned to the village. Hiccup, Toothless, and Ruby all landed near their house and Astrid and Stormfly followed. "DAD!" Hiccup called for his father as he unsaddled from Toothless. "Dad?" he called again. He went in the house and noticed that his father wasn't home.

Hiccup came back out of the house with a confused look on his face.

"Dad's not home." he said

"I guess he must be doing chief stuff." Astrid replied, thinking outloud.

"_I smell food cooking."_ Toothless said as he sniffed the air. He stopped sniffing when he was looking at the direction of the Great Hall, since that's the direction of the smell.

"_I think it's coming from there!"_ Toothless said happily. Hiccup looked at where Toothless was looking at, and said "He must be at the Great Hall." Then he looked at the village to only see empty streets. "Along with everyone else..." he said guessing what's happening at the Great Hall.

"Huh?" said Astrid, confused, then she looked around the village. "Oh."

"C'mon, lets go." Hiccup said as he saddled up on Toothless. Astrid saddled up behind him just as he was taking off.

When they landed at the front of the Great Hall, they could hear a big fire crackling inside. Hiccup, with a big grunt, opened the large doors to the Great Hall. He was surprised to see everyone there, all unusually quiet as if they were just having a big meeting about something. When the doors were opened wide enough, Toothless jumped over Hiccup and Astrid, and walked inside as the other Vikings cleared a path for the Night Fury. Snotlout walked up to Hiccup in a threatening manner, and Astrid stepped in front of Hiccup in a protective way, but Hiccup held her back. He couldn't let her stand up for him all the time. Plus, this is a battle Hiccup felt like he could win against Snotlout, unlike almost any other time. Snotlout took a big breath, and asked in a loud voice so all could hear:

"So, what happened last night between you and Astrid?"

Astrid was about to open her mouth but Hiccup stopped her before she could say anything.

"I apologized to her," he started clearly "And," he gave a small, long pause and Toothless looked back at Hiccup and Astrid expectantly, wondering if a fight was about to happen. "And, I proposed."

"P-p-p-p-proposed?" Snotlout stuttered the word as he stumbled backwards

"Yes." Hiccup said with dignity.

"What d-d-d-did she say?" Snotlout asked, clearly he's nervous of Astrid's answer to Hiccup.

"I said yes of course." Astrid replied to the stumbling Snotlout.

All the Vikings in the Great Hall gave one loud cheer for the newly betrothed. Hiccup winced at the sudden loudness of the room, and Astrid just smiled at Hiccup's cute reaction. Snotlout now feels like he just lost a battle against Hiccup for the very first time. And he's still single!

After the cheering for the new betrothed couple ended, the morning breakfast food was brought out for celebration. Hiccup had gotten the feeling his father would know it would go well this time. So he had prepared all this food, with the help of the other vikings of course.

"What I want to know is," Tuffnut started "What happened to her face? I mean, the scars were awesome. Wish I had some like that."

"Ruby healed them," Astrid immediately responded "Her tears are like some sort of healing properties or something." She felt her face again and smiled at Hiccup. Hiccup smiled back at her.

"And you guys wanted to get rid of her." Hiccup reflected.

"You made your point Hiccup." Astrid whispered in his ear.

Hiccup couldn't help but laugh.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

It's been about a month since Hiccup's successful proposal to Astrid. Ruby has grown a little larger, in fact, she's a little larger than Hookfang, whom is a Monstrous Nightmare. Monstrous Nightmares are one of the biggest dragons that are allowed to stay on Berk. Any bigger, and they have to stay on Dragon Island. Hiccup was getting _really _worried about just how big Ruby was going to get before she finally stops growing. It was about two weeks ago when Ruby couldn't fit inside the house and had to sleep outside next to Skullcrusher, Stoicks dragon. Skullcrusher is a Rumblehorn tracking dragon that was discovered on Dragon Island a couple years back. After Stoick gave away Thornado, a Thunderdrum dragon, under some circumstances, he wanted another dragon. So he had set out to find another one when he had the time.

Now, Hiccup and Astrid were alone with all their dragons on a beach enjoying a nice summer day. Ruby had learned how to truly fly finally, and Hiccup wanted to do some new crazy stunts since he has two flying dragons now. Astrid was sitting on the beach next to Stormfly as she watched her betrothed flying in the air with Toothless, doing beautiful huge circles around Ruby. Hiccup was creating something new for himself in the armory, and he wanted to try it out today.

"Alright bud, how 'bout we give this a try?" Hiccup said to Toothless as he patted the Night Fury's head. The dragon roared in excitement. "Ruby? You ready girl?" he then asked the big red dragon

"_Whenever you are Hiccup."_ she responded with.

Hiccup locked Toothless's tail in place as the dragon spread his wings to hover in a straight line about a hundred feet above Ruby. Hiccup stood up on the saddle and did a back-flip jump off of Toothless and dived-bombed for about fifty to sixty feet. He grabbed a couple of loops from his legs and opened his wing-suit and made a very sharp turn upwards to level out. Hiccup cringed in pain a little when that happened. Even when he was expecting that.

Astrid stood up in surprise, wide-eyed to see her betrothed doing something crazy like this. Well, she kinda figured he would do something like this sometime. It was only a matter of time. She noticed that Hiccup was slightly out of control for his first time flying on his own, and Ruby climbed up to him and caught him on her long neck. She flew up to the still-gliding Night Fury and Hiccup jumped on Toothless and released the brakes on the makeshift tail. Five or so minutes later, they all landed near Astrid on the beach.

"That could've gone better." Hiccup said as he was putting away his wing-suit. "I think I might need some sort of stabilizer to glide better." he said mentally taking notes.

"Hiccup, are you out of your mind?! That was crazy what you just did." Astrid yelled, still surprised. "But I liked it. It's definitely you." She said more calmly as she smiled.

"Why thank you milady." Hiccup said in that playful voice he always uses. He even did a funny bow he always does when he says that. Astrid couldn't help but blush. That bow always makes her blush and she didn't know why.

"So, just how big do you think Ruby's going to get?" Astrid asked as she walked up to the big red dragon's head and laid a hand on it. Ruby pressed her head against Astrid's hand and gave a comfortably warm puff of air from her nostrils.

"No idea, but I really hope that she has finally stopped growing by now," Hiccup said, worriment evident in his voice as he looked at the big red dragon. "If she gets any bigger, she'll be banned from Berk." Hiccup closed his eyes as he hugged Ruby's large head after he said that. "_If you do get banned, Toothless and I will come with you,"_ He thought to her "_I am not leaving you alone out there. That's a promise."_

Hiccup eventually released the dragon's head and went over to sit down near Stormfly where Astrid was sitting. She followed him, and sat down on his left and kissed him on the cheek. She was aiming for his lips, but he turned his head to the open blue skies and stared at them, thinking deeply.

"Hiccup?" He turned his head towards her after Astrid had called his name about three times. "What's wrong?" she asked as she cocked her head.

"I've been thinking," Hiccup started "Just where _did_ Ruby come from? I mean, she's not like any dragon we've seen these past years. And she healed your scars with her tears. That was weird. Beautiful," he said quickly "But strangely weird, even for a dragon. Have you ever heard of a dragon doing such a thing?" He asked and she shook her head no. "And the mark on my left hand hurts from time to time as well. Same goes for Toothless." Toothless came over to Hiccup at the mention of his name and laid down next to him, resting his head on the right side of his rider. Hiccup scratched the Night Fury's head and continued saying, "I have so many questions about Ruby, but no answers for any of them yet."

"I'm sure you'll get those answers someday Hiccup," Astrid said, astonished by his sudden speech "But right now, can we just focus on us?" She went in for a kiss on Hiccup's lips, and this time, he didn't turn away. Stormfly cawed for approval of the couple kissing each other, and so did Toothless. But the Night Fury still wanted to see a fight happen between the two like the good old days, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon much to his dismay.

* * *

"We should probably head back huh?" Hiccup advised. They have been on Thor's Beach for a few hours longer than they anticipated. Just enjoying each others company.

"Yeah, we should," Said Astrid, then she said "Or, we should fly around Berk before heading back to the village."

"I like the way you think Astrid." he said "Alright, one lap around Berk it is."

They mounted their respected dragons and all three dragons took off into the air.

"Last one to the village drinks my Yaknog!" Astrid called as she sped off pretty fast. Hiccup's whole body shuddered when she said that. As much as he loved her, he didn't love her Yaknog. Not even Toothless liked it. He soon realized that they were being left in the dust, so Hiccup opened the makeshift tail and sped up towards the sparkling blue Deadly Nadder. In almost a few seconds flat, He and Toothless were almost upon Stormfly and Astrid. He looked back to see Ruby having a little trouble keeping up.

"_You okay Ruby?"_ He asked her through thought

"_I'm fine, just not as fast as you guys are."_ She replied with, it sounded like that she was out of breath or something when she spoke. Ruby wasn't used to flying, especially with two very fast dragons.

It was about sunset when they all landed back at the village. Hiccup and Astrid both kissed goodnight and went to their own homes.

* * *

Hiccup woke up to the sound of a roaring dragon. He looked out his window from his bed to see that it was night. He checked on Toothless and saw that he was still sleeping. _That dragon can sleep through anything._ Hiccup thought as he shook his head. Then he heard it again, the dragon roar. He realized this time that it was coming from Ruby. Hiccup can tell what kind of dragon it is by its roar, for each dragon has their own unique sounds. Like birds. Hiccup shot out of bed and moved it to his window and looked out. Ruby wasn't sleeping near Skullcrusher. Instantly that made Hiccup move with worry. He quickly and quietly ran down the stairs without waking his father and he dashed outside. He saw Ruby flying around above the village breathing large streams of fire in random directions when he saw her. Luckily though, none of the fire hit any of the houses.

"_RUBY!" _He yelled at her through both thought and voice. "_STOP IT!"_ Nothing was working. The dragon wasn't paying attention to him and she was out-of-control. He could only stand there, shocked and frozen at what he was seeing when Ruby crashed landed into the plaza. When she crash landed, there was a huge rumble from the ground that could be felt everywhere, and the feeding stations tumbled over as she breathed fire at them. If her roaring earlier didn't wake anyone up but him, the huge impact when she landed would've. Hiccup was still frozen in shock on the porch of his house when his father came up to him.

Stoick laid a hand on his son and Hiccup jumped.

"What's the matter with her?" Stoick asked

"I-uh..." Hiccup couldn't speak for a moment. He coughed, clearing his throat, then tried again "I-I don't know dad. She's never done this before."

"Well, can you stop her?" He asked. Whenever a dragon goes out-of-control on Berk, he always lets his son try to calm down the dragon first. If his son couldn't calm an out-of-control dragon, that's when he goes to Gobber.

"I'll try." He said. He ran down to the plaza and when he got to Ruby, he noticed quickly that her eyelids were closed shut. _She's asleep?_ Hiccup thought. He shook his head in disbelief and walked calmly up to Ruby who's now laying still, breathing heavily. Hiccup held out his left hand and continued to slowly walk up to her.

"I-it's okay girl," Hiccup said in a calm voice. By this time, everyone in the plaza was standing on their porches watching Hiccup walk up to his red dragon calmly. Though he was really frightened on the inside. Not frightened of her, frightened of losing her if this ever happens again. "It's me, Hiccup." he said as he touched the dragon's snout. Right when he touched her snout with his left hand, her big green emerald eyes slowly blinked open.

"_Hi-Hiccup?"_ She asked wearily. Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief. "_W-what happened?" _She asked all confused when Hiccup hugged her head.

"_You were sleep flying,"_ he thought to her "_Destroyed some things in the village as well. No one was hurt though."_

"Everything's going to be fine folks," The Chief said as he came up to his son and the red dragon. "You may all go back to sleep." The townsfolk all sighed with relief and went back inside their own homes. Astrid looked at Hiccup and Ruby with sad look on her face before heading back inside her home to sleep.

"Come on son, take Ruby back to the house. I'll clean her mess up in the morning." Stoick said gently.

"Let's go girl." Hiccup said, trying to hold back tears. The dragon slowly stood up and followed Hiccup and his father back to the house. When they all reached the house, Hiccup didn't even bother sleeping inside his room with Toothless for the rest of the night. It was a warm night outside, so he stayed next to Ruby sleeping with her, to keep her company.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

A week has gone by without another incident from Ruby. And Hiccup was thinking that it was only a one-time thing. He just hope that he wasn't wrong about that. He, Astrid and the gang were all in the Dragon Training Academy where Hiccup was giving off lessons about different dragons. The gang was also training some younger recruits from the village that were old enough to start riding dragons. So, this was a good opportunity to learn for the newcomers.

"So," Hiccup was saying "Anyone remember the Speed Stinger attack we had a few years ago?" They all nodded their heads nervously "Good, because we're going to learn about them today. Don't worry, we don't have any Speed Stingers, nor are we actually going to go search for them." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Hiccup said that. "Okay then, can anyone tell me, other than Fishlegs," Fishlegs was about to raise his hand in the air for a quick answer when Hiccup eyed him. Fishlegs lowered his hand slowly. "Why Speed Stingers can't fly?"

"Oh! Oh!" one of the two younger ones were raising their hands, itching to answer.

"Yes, Eilaf?" Hiccup said, noticing her.

"Because Speed Stingers wings are undeveloped. They pour all their energy into their legs and that's what makes them the fastest land-type dragon." She said speaking fast.

"Correct." Hiccup said and marked a point for her team on the chalkboard. "Point to the youngsters. Now, can anyone else tell me about the Speed Stingers?" He asked and glared at Fishlegs to keep quiet. _I need to know if they studied the subject._ Were what his eyes said to Fishlegs.

"Um," started the other youngster on Eilaf's team. He was shyly raising his hand.

"Yes Rurik?" Hiccup said encouraging the young lad

"Well, their skin is all tough and hard making our weapons kind of useless against them." he said quietly. Hiccup still heard him though and he said

"That's good Rurik. Another point to the youngsters."

Eilaf punched Rurik in the shoulder for doing a good job. Rurik gave a half-smile to her as he rubbed his shoulder. Just as Hiccup was about to ask another question about the Speed Stingers, Eilaf raised her hand.

"Yes Eilaf?" Hiccup asked when he saw that her hand was up.

"Can you tell us about your new red dragon?" She asked

"W-well," Hiccup was caught off-guard by the question. He glanced over to Ruby who has been sitting near Toothless, quietly watching him teach class. "There's not much to tell," Hiccup said once he regained his composure. "She's big, and very beautiful that's for sure." He quickly glanced at Astrid when he said that and gave a quick smile to her. "I'm not even sure if that's her full size," he went on.

"Can you tell us what happened to her last week?" She asked

"I'm still not sure myself." Hiccup said trying to forget that incident. "I just hope it doesn't happen again." Astrid noticed that Hiccup was trying not to break down in front of the entire class and stepped up saying

"Okay, I think that's enough for today guys. We'll start again tomorrow young ones. Same time?" They nodded their heads quickly, and also wondered why class is suddenly ending by Astrid Hofferson instead of Hiccup. Astrid smiled warmly at them. "Class dismissed." She said. Snotlout, and the gang left the academy on their dragons, while Eilaf and Rurik walked out then chased each other to the village.

* * *

"Thanks." Hiccup said quietly to Astrid once the academy was emptied. He walked up to Ruby and sat down next to his dragons and laid his head on Toothless's neck, sighing tiredly. He had another nightmare last night, and went out flying with Ruby and Toothless trying to shake it off.

"You look exhausted." Astrid said noticing his droopy eyes. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

Hiccup shook his head, too tired, worried, and worn out to talk. Astrid went over to him and sat down close to him. She let him fall asleep with his head on Toothless's neck. Astrid looked at Toothless and noticed that his eyes were also closed. She sort of wished that she could talk to Stormfly, like how Hiccup can talk with Ruby and Toothless. But, she knew it wouldn't be possible. A couple of hours watching the boy and his dragon sleep together, Hiccup awoke with a start, startling Astrid.

"You okay babe?" Astrid asked, worried as she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Y-yeah." Hiccup said, slightly out of breath

"You can tell me anything, you know." She said. She just knows him too well when he keeping something from her. Except the engagement ring, for some strange reason, she just didn't see that one coming at all.

"I know." He sighed "You know what?"

"What?" She repeated

"I think that I will tell you about my nightmares." he said

After Hiccup told her about the nightmares, he just realized that all of them were mostly the same. A huge dragon war. Toothless being shot down. Ruby being knocked out and him falling in the ocean. They were both quiet for a while as Astrid pondered on this. Hiccup then told her that he has been sleeping outside for the past week next to Ruby, in fear of her doing what she did that night. He thought that if he stayed with Ruby at night, then she wouldn't have another blackout episode. They talked to each other for a long time until the sun was setting.

"Hey," Hiccup said "When do you want to get married officially?" he asked suddenly

Astrid was surprised by the sudden question and was, again, speechless.

"Astrid?" he said her name again to get her attention.

"Oh um..." she stuttered trying to find her voice. She coughed, clearing her throat, blinked a few times and then said surely "How about we have it in two days? Preparations for tomorrow in the Great Hall, and we'll have the wedding the very next day. Sound good?" She asked

Hiccup was now staring at her with wide eyes, surprised by how ready she looked when she said all that.

"You've been thinking about this a lot haven't you?" he asked suspiciously

"Yes. Haven't you?" she asked him curiously as she raised an eyebrow. Hiccup darted his eyes this way and that trying to avoid _her_ hypnotizing gaze. He really hasn't thinking about their wedding until now, and he didn't want to disappoint her by saying something stupid and messing up badly like he did in the past. "You haven't been thinking about it have you?" She asked as she sighed and shook her head.

"I'm so sorry Astrid, I've had a lot on my mi-" Astrid quieted him by putting a finger to his lips. She leaned in to kiss him, and then said surprisingly,

"It's okay. I know you've been busy with Gobber and helping building the stables and all. However, I think the both of us should take the next few days off and tell your father about the wedding date tonight."

Hiccup smiled and nodded his approval. Astrid really does think ahead, especially when it comes to the two of them. And that's one of the many thousands of reasons Hiccup loves her. She's strong, passionate, a warrior, an awesome and beautiful dragon rider, and many other things as well.

"We should probably stay together for the next few days," Hiccup suggested and blushed "Until the wedding that is." Astrid smiled and nodded.

* * *

Both Astrid and Hiccup unmounted their dragons and walked inside Hiccup's home holding each others arms. It's been an hour after sunset, and his dad would still be out chiefing on Skullcrusher. Stoick wouldn't be home for another hour or so. They sat in the living room talking and Hiccup was tossing some fish to Toothless from time to time. He even scratched the Night Fury's head and neck.

"_T-That's the spot."_ Toothless said with enjoyment. He was making a rumbling sound deep within his throat that sounded like a purring cat, dragon style.

"He seems to be enjoying that." Astrid said as she giggled at the look in Toothless's eyes.

"Because he is." Hiccup said still scratching Toothless's neck.

A few minutes later, Stoick came in the house to see his son scratching Toothless's neck. He was surprised to see Astrid here as well when he finally noticed her.

"Evening Chief," Astrid said "or, should I say soon-to-be father-in-law? I don't know yet." she said playfully.

"Probably father-in-law." Hiccup suggested "I mean, we do plan to have the wedding in two days time right?" he asked and Astrid smiled and nodded. Stoick's eyes widened at this sudden news. Then he filled the house with laughter.

"That's wonderful news!" Stoick said once he settled down from his excitement laughing "So, I take that preparations are tomorrow then?" They both nodded their heads with smiles on their faces. "Now then, where shall we hold it?"

"The Great Hall." both Hiccup and Astrid said.

* * *

**Authors Notes:  
I'll be posting chapter 8 soon. I don't know when, because its only going to be Hiccup and Astrid (With their dragons) moments before their wedding.**

**Please review and tell me what you think of the story so far.**


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